Crescendo
by Animegirl1129
Summary: Crescendo - Gradually increasing in volume, force, or intensity. In which there are ten song-based ficlets about Benny and Ethan.


Crescendo

_**Self-appointed ten-song challenge for MBAV. Some slashy, some pre-slashy, some gen-ish. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome.**_

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**Kiss Me Slowly / Parachute**

They're close enough to practically be breathing the same air, heads leaned in close as they conspire over their latest supernatural catastrophe, huddled over a stack of books at the kitchen table. Amidst whispered words about botched spells and hazy visions, Benny catches Ethan's tired eyes and things just seem to slow down.

"What're you-" Ethan starts, caught off guard by the intensity of the look on his best friend's face.

Benny leans in, moving through what limited space is left between them, and presses his lips lightly to Ethan's. It's a quick kiss, or at least it's meant to be. Benny is fully prepared to back off just as quickly as he started it, but Ethan kisses back, drawing him into a long, slow kiss that they both kind of lose themselves in.

It's the sound of precariously balanced piles of books slipping off the edge of the table, striking the floor with sharp 'slams' that finally startles them into separating. Benny and Ethan are both flushed and grinning, laughing together when they realize just what broke them apart.

It doesn't take long for another long, slow kiss to start.

**Do You Believe In Magic? / The Lovin' Spoonfuls**

"What's it like?" Ethan asks, sprawled out on his back in the grass in the backyard space between their houses, looking up at the first specks of stars in the evening sky. Benny's lying next to him, flipping absently through his spell-book.

Benny doesn't even look up, just flips to the next page. "What's what like?"

"Magic," he answers. "I mean, the visions are weird, they just... It's like something I need to know about so badly it hurts, when I get them. Does magic hurt?"

Benny closes the book and rolls over, so he's facing Ethan. "No," he says. "Well, when I do it wrong and mess everything up, that kinda hurts, I guess," he hums in thought and rolls over to look up at the sky himself. "I guess it's kinda like this."

"Like what?"

Benny gestures upward, "like the stars," he says, like it should be obvious.

At that, Ethan glances over at him, because that is well and truly cheesy.

"Shut up," Benny says, before Ethan can say as much, and neither of them is surprised that Benny knew what was coming. "I just mean that... I don't know, you have to be calm to do magic, if you want to do it right and not have it blow up in your face, at least. And to be calm, you have to think of something that calms you down," he explains, hoping the twilight hides the red in his face. "Like this. I could use this."

"Oh," Ethan nods, eyes flicking over to his friend again. "I think I understand."

**Secrets / Maroon 5**

Ethan's not sure what he's supposed to do.

The visions have never been wrong. Never. They've been fragmented and confusing and he's interpreted them incorrectly before, but they have never been wrong.

But then he's never had one on Benny before.

It had come with a playful shoulder bump in the hallway as they passed each other on their way to separate classes, and the fact that they were heading in opposite directions is probably the only reason that Benny didn't notice. He's sure Benny would have questioned him if he had realized what was happening. But he'd stayed frozen there, with strange, baffling images flashing in his head for several seconds, before he popped back to reality, to the sea of students moving around him and staggered to history. He hadn't been able to focus the rest of the day. He hadn't been able to look at Benny the rest of the day.

Now, home in his room - after avoiding a walk home with his best friend for the first time in forever - he tries to figure things out.

The visions always come true, he knows that. But he doesn't know why he got this one. Why Benny's secrets triggered a vision when nothing Benny has done has ever caused one before.

Ethan sighs, drops his head into his hands. What is he supposed to do?

**Come Home / OneRepublic **

"You need to get back here," Benny says, voice edging on panicked. "Like, now, E."

Ethan's presently trapped in the backseat of his parent's car, with his sister to his left and a pile of suitcases in the back. He presses the cell phone closer to his ear and plugs his other, hoping to drown out the noise of Jane's off-key singing. "Why? What's wrong?"

There's a muted noise in the background, then comes the sound of something shattering, the tinny explosion of glass as it scatters across the floor. "Dude, my magic is going haywire. Sarah's trying to help, and Erica's on her way, but-" another loud noise, this one followed by what is clearly Sara shouting. "But, things are getting out of hand and you've been gone for two weeks on vacation and it keeps getting worse..."

"We'll be back soon," Ethan promises, though he's perplexed by Benny's ramblings, "we just got into town."

There's a huge sigh of relief from the cell phone. "Good," Benny breathes, "Good. Just... hurry, will you?"

In the fifteen minutes it takes to get home, Ethan wonders why his presence and Benny's magic are so linked together that they cause such chaos when apart. In that time, he has come up with zero answers to explain it. But when Erica and Sarah steal him away from his parents the second he's out of the car and drag him over to Benny's house - which looks like a very strong tornado has ripped through it - and up to Benny's room - more like a nuclear explosion, there - and right up to Benny - haggard and exhausted, like he's endured such disasters endlessly for the last fourteen days - for a hug, there's a definitive shift in the energy there. Like a wave of relaxed, calm air hits and takes the frantic, electric charge out of it.

"Next time, you're taking him with you," Erica grumbles, as the residual traces of Benny's active spells fizzles out to nothing.

**Protège-****Moi / Placebo**

Benny sits on the front steps of Ethan's house, anxious and paranoid, as he carefully surveys his surroundings. His feet won't stay still, bouncing in an ever-erratic rhythm, while his fingers drum against his knees. It's adrenaline that keeps his eyes open and focused, or else he would have long since fallen asleep. But there's no sleeping with such a threat prowling around.

"Come on," he says, wishing his Grandma would get back soon to make sure the border-spell is still secure. It's only the second time he's ever cast it and he can feel it wavering when he doesn't pay close enough attention.

The group of older boys passes by again, the twelfth time now, he thinks, and Benny eyes them warily. He feels his magic stir, but holds it back. He won't be the first to make a move. Not here and not now.

Not when Ethan is curled up in his room, or curled up as much as he can be with the injuries he gained in their latest battle against Jesse and his vampire thugs. There had been no bites, thankfully, but since vampire powers include super-strength, getting thrown into walls and downstairs is an especially painful experience. With Ethan down, and Erica, Rory and Sarah all fighting their more vampiric urges while Jesse's around, Benny's all that's left to stand between the groups. All that's left to protect Ethan.

And that's something he'll do for as long as he possibly can.

**Love's In Vein / I Kissed A Vampire (Drew Seeley)**

So Ethan is a vampire.

Benny's not quite sure how that happened, but to be fair, that had been a battle he'd been mostly unconscious for. So he can't really be blamed. Unless someone decides to blame him for getting knocked out when he'd staked one of the snapping vampires before it could get to Jane.

He supposes that it doesn't really surprise him all that much. Quite frankly, he considers it amazing that they've managed to stay human for so long - well into their last year at college - with how much they've been hanging out with a trio of undead teenagers. He's amazed it didn't happen sooner. Which is probably why he's not that upset. It was going to happen eventually, he knew that.

Apparently, Ethan was a little less prepared for that particular inevitability. Given the sheer amount of freaking out he's doing, he was clearly anticipating this never happening.

But it's not like he'll be _alone_.

It takes more effort than usual for Benny to distract Ethan out of his vampiric panic attack - impressive, given the no heartbeat, no breathing thing, Benny thinks - and then he has to quell another one when he reminds Ethan of the promise they made back when all this started. That if one of them got turned, so would the other. And that's not something he intends to let go.

"You're sure?" Ethan asks, eyes drawn to Benny's neck, where the pulse of blood is edging on too fast.

He manages a nod and steps in closer, "yeah. I'm not going anywhere."

Ethan's brand new fangs sink into his neck slowly, and he drinks until Benny feels dizzy with the loss of blood. He stumbles back a step, eyes wild and wide with what he's done. "Did it-"

"Yes," Benny says, because he can feel the vampire poison burning in his veins. He uses his magic to ease it, and sits down on the edge of the bed, a relieved smile on his face. "We're vampires."

**Rescue Me / Daughtry**

The first enemy to figure it out is a desperate, three-hundred year old witch making a last ditch effort to stay alive. It's dumb luck that she managed to grab Ethan, and even dumber luck that it had been right as Benny was getting ready to blast off a stunning spell. He stumbles forward in an attempt to send the blast off course and away from where the witch is using Ethan as a shield, but it's enough for the wicked woman to figure out his reasons.

"Ahh," she hums, newly confident in her hostage. She wraps an arm around Ethan's neck, let's her pointy black nails graze over his neck. "Quite a weakness you have there."

"Benny," Ethan tries, eyes wide and worried. "Don't listen to her, just-"

"You make one move and I kill him."

Benny doesn't move. He listens carefully. She's right. Ethan is his weakness. He's do anything to keep Ethan safe even if it means doing nothing.

"Come on! Benny!" Ethan implores, struggling in her hold to give Benny some room to target her. "Do something!"

"What do you want me to do?" He asks, though even he isn't sure if he's asking Ethan or the witch.

"I want your magic," she says, smiling when she realizes that her leverage has been more than effective.

And she would have it, too, if Erica and Sarah hadn't shown up and surprised the witch, letting Ethan scramble away from her. It had been all the chance Benny needed to fire off a couple of spells to get rid of her for good.

Benny rushes to Ethan's side when he's sure she's gone, pulls him into his arms in a tight hug. "You're okay?" He asks, hands moving over Ethan's neck to make sure of that for himself. "You're okay," he sighs, a heavy exhale of breath that seems to take a huge weight off his shoulder. "Okay, okay."

Ethan hugs back, and puts up with Benny's panicked fussing. "She won't be the last one to figure out how to get to us," he cautions, but Benny's too relieved at the results of this particular fight to worry about the next one right now.

**Broken Glass / Mayaeni**

In the aftermath of losing Sarah and Erica and Rory to a bloody execution, Benny and Ethan are inseparable.

They walk to and from school together, walk to class together. The two classes they don't have together are spent in a painful tension that makes it impossible to pay attention to the lesson on the board. After school, they train with Benny's Grandma for as long as they can. From there, they carefully cross back to Ethan's house, where Benny stays at every night, so he can be sure that nothing can get to him like it did to the others. He doesn't bother with the sleeping bag, just climbs in alongside his friend and curls up close to him in the too small bed, arms and legs tangled together in a twisted knot of limbs. Not like there's all that much sleep happening, anyway, what with all the nightmares.

Ethan has more of them, but he saw more of what happened, so that's only to be expected.

He wakes with a start, and a strangled shout that gets lost in his pillow. The movement and the sounds stir Benny from the light sleep he'd fallen into and he reaches out quickly to keep Ethan from rolling out of bed. The quick rise and fall of his chest and the rapid beat of his heart suggest sleep won't be coming again tonight.

"It's okay," Benny says, even though he's not so sure he believes it himself. "it'll get better."

"No, it won't," Ethan mumbles quietly into the darkness.

"No," Benny agrees, letting his hand cover Ethan's when he feels it shaking. There's still the matter of the group of anti-supernatural hunters roaming around out there and Benny already knows that he's a target himself. He doesn't think they know about Ethan's abilities, and he plans to keep it that way. "At least not until we get them, but someday."

"Someday," Ethan nods, and flips his hand over to entwine his fingers with Benny's, squeezing lightly. "Someday."

**Everybody Talks / Neon Trees**

It's a beautiful moonlit night, and Sarah and Ethan are walking side by side on the way from the park to the movie theater on what has so far been a pretty enjoyable first date, so far as Ethan thinks. It's a cool night, just this side of chilly with the late-October air, and he's got his jacket draped over Sarah's shoulders - even though vampirism renders it pointless since she doesn't get cold or hot - but it's the thought that counts. He grins, glad this is going so well, but that's when things change.

"Why am I here?" Sarah asks out of nowhere, as the two of them approach the movie theater.

Ethan stops dead in his tracks, and looks hurt when he meets her eyes. "What do you mean?"

She sighs, and smiles softly. "I mean," she starts, "that I don't know why you asked me out."

"I... like you?" He offers, still very confused. "Isn't that a good enough reason to want to go on a date with you?"

"That's just it. This doesn't feel like a date. Oh, no. This feels more like you are very enthusiastically attempting to pitch me the very lengthy biography you're writing about Benny." The blank stare she receives in response to this comment makes her continue on in her explanation. "You don't even realize how much you talk about him, do you?"

"I don't!" Ethan protests, but even he knows it's a lie. "I do?"

Sarah nods, "at one point, I brought up subjects just to see how long it took you to connect them to Benny. Your record was four minutes and twelve seconds, by the way, when I asked about Jane's dance recital."

Ethan laughs awkwardly and rubs at the back of his neck. "So, maybe I talk about Benny a lot."

"Have you tried taking him on a date? You might have a better time talking about things other than him that way?"

"You mean like a double date?" Ethan asks, though for some reason he doesn't like that idea at all.

Sarah laughs at him. "No, that is not what I meant."

Ethan feels his face turn red and he stares resolutely down at his shoes. "Oh," he says, realizing what she did mean. "Oh."

That... is not a horrible idea.

**Take My Hand / The Cab (Ft. Hey Monday)**

"Don't let go," Benny says, his fingers curled tight around Ethan's. "Whatever you do," he says, "do not let go of me."

They're running for their lives through the streets of White Chapel. They've been running so long that they're legs burn with it, and they're both heaving for breath. But they don't dare stop or slow down.

"I won't," Ethan pants, pulling Benny around a corner to cut through a couple of back alleys. "This way."

Another ten minutes of running and they're cornered. It was the last open area they would have had to cross to get to one of the safe-spots Benny's Grandma had told them about, but they didn't make it that far.

They're surrounded with impressive speed, ringed in back against a high brick wall.

"Now what?"

"Don't. Let. Go."

Ethan nods and squeezes tighter.

The coven of intensely powerful witches and warlocks who have been trying their damnedest to get to the two troublesome teenage boys of White Chapel look pleased to have finally caught their prey.

"Take them," their leader commands, and two of his group move forward.

"Don't let go, don't let go," Benny repeats. "No matter what, you don't let go."

He's been saying that over and over again ever since they realized they were being actively pursued. Benny had reached out and said "take my hand," and Ethan had without a second thought.

It's only now, when the two witches are shocked when they get too close, that he realizes what Benny's doing, why he can't let go. It's magic. And it's clear that they have underestimated Benny's powers because it's working. He's protecting them.

Ethan can work with this. He's navigated them this far, and knowing that Benny's magic can zap away any threats - for now, at least, he doesn't know how long Benny can hold them off, given how strong they all are - he pulls Benny into the crowd of the coven. Moving closer shocks them into jumping away, leaving a gap they can get through. Then it's more running.

Ethan will keep them going until he gets them out of White Chapel and to somewhere safe.

Even then, he might not let go of Benny's hand.


End file.
